small boat question

[Steve Reed]

Hi guys I wondered if anyone had an opinion or first hand experience on something.
I live in san diego but davis is my home for school and alot of summer. my dad and I have a boat in San Diego and fish alot, but while in davis i will sometimes take my float tube out and fish, and other times jump on a back seat. But, this summer I thought about buying a small aluminum boat and rigging it up like a bass boat, after going over all the angles, the main concern I have comes with the batteries. I would be running a high thrust t-motor, fish finder, and livewell airator. My question is how much battery would i need, i thought about 4 batteries, but the weight concerns me a bit.


Anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks,
Steve

[Skeeterman]

You should be able to get by with 3 batteries.You said you want a high thrust trolling motor how much?

[Bill K]

Unless your t/motor is 36volt, you can get by just fine with a good 24volt system on those assessories. Which would mean two batterys. Now you might need a third one for the main motor, if it is electric start. Place that one to the rear and the other two midship to balance the boat/load. Should work just fine for your purpose. Bill K

[Smile_n_Jax]

Depends on how you rig 'em. Run a big, group 27 or 31 high CCA, battery for your cranking motor and use it for your electronics and live wells. Then run two deep cycle 12 volts for your trolling motor. That's the setup I have and can run all day without a problem. Of course, I have the StaynCharge system to make sure all my batteries stay charged up.

BTW, anytime you want to go out together, let me know.

[jamescaird]

The speed you can make while not on a plane (hull speed) is dictated by the length of the boat. The longer the boat, the faster the possible hull speed. That's how an oil tanker goes so fast without planing...it's long! A 20' boat will go faster with a 100# thrust troller going wide open than you will with a 12' boat with the same 100# troller (unless the 100# troller will plane the small vessel) ...that's the physics of it...but what I'm saying is you will be just fine with a single 12 volt battery and a 55# thrust troller on a boat that size... you will be able to use the troller longer at high speed however with the 24 or 36 volt system as they are more efficient and have more available juice.

[Scott L]

I think you can get by with a 12 volt system and possibly carry a second battery as backup. My previous boat was a 16' flat bottom bass boat with a 40 hp merc. The boat originally came with an old 18# thrust (they didn't rate them by thrust back in '77) and was replaced with a 52# thrust motorguide 12V. The boat just about flew on the 12v 52# t-motor and I don't recall ever having a problem with not enough juice. If I was on a multi day trip I would make sure to run the big motor towards the end of the day.
If you are planning on going electric without a big motor, my suggestion would be to stay with a 12v system and carry a backup. A 50+ thrust troll motor should be fine for a small boat and if you were to run out of juice a second battery would get you home. If you ran a 24 volt system you would need both batteries to get back. I think you can pick up an inexpensive charger for under $50.

Good luck.

[Joe W.]

I have a 14' Aluminum basically made into a bass boat. I run a 12v 55lbs trolling motor with a single deep cycle battery. I run a Lowrance X96 off of a 12v motorcycle battery to limit the weight. The battery is tiny, weighs a pound or so. You should be able to get away with 2 deep cycles for the troller and live well and a small 12v for the finder.

I don't know how fancy you are trying to get but this works well enough for me. I don't have a livewell. Space is limited so unless you plan on fishing tourneys you may want to scrap the well.

[Slippy]

I don't have a livewell. Space is limited so unless you plan on fishing tourneys you may want to scrap the well.

i agree with Joe. if you really wanted to keep the fish alive you could use one of those belly boat live wells thats basicly a net that holds the fish.

[Sacto John]

I started fishing tourneys with the 14/25 (now 16/60) bass club, that had a 14 foot and 25Hp limit on the boats allowed to fish the club. There were some tricked out custom aluminum boats in that club and we fished all over from the delta to the mother load lakes. None of the guys in the club that I can remember ran more than one battery, and almost everyone was running fish finders, live well and t-motor. A 12 volt 55# thrust motor is plenty for most situations and I would not want to put more weight than I had to in a alum. boat.

[Peter Lloyd]

You only need two batteries. Get a good 12V trolling motor (Minnkota makes the best 12V motors) and run your livewell and electronics on your starting battery. For a small aluminum boat a 12V motor is fine, even in the delta. I grew up fishing the Delta with my dad in our 14' seanymph with one battery. That one battery ran the trolling motor and our old furuno graph. The motor was a handpull start.

[mark poulson]

I'd use a series 31 deep cycle battery for the cranking and accessory battery. That way, you can run your livewell and graphs all day, and still have lots of cranking amps left.
How much trolling motor you need depends on where you plan to fish, and how high out of the water you boat sits.
Aluminum boats are like sails, because they're light, and if yours stick up high, like my Tracker, you might need a 24volt motor and system to handle fishing in the wind all day.
I just fished a two day tourney at Lopez, with an additional prefish day. My 24volt system held up fine, where my old 12 volt, 45ftlb MG would have died. Of course, if you hook up two 12 volt batteries in series, you can have twice the amps available, and 12 volt TM will last much longer.
Optima deep cycle 31 batteries are some of the lightest, smallest, amp for amp, batteries around. And they're maintenance free.

[brambo0311]

I have a 15' gregor with a brute 12/24 55# thrust on it. I run 2 12 volt batteries in parallel. I made a battery compartment out of the bench seats, piano hinged them. With one battery I was dieing out before the day was done. With 2 batteries in parallel it will go all weekend without a charge. This boat is a deep v and is totally loaded with gear. Plus the boat is a baja special and has super thick aluminum. I run the motor on the 12v setting because thats as fast it needs to go when I am pluggin. If i switch it to 24 it throws a wake, but will only go for a day and half. If you fish the delta tides you will want 2 batteries, if just lakes 1 should do ya. Also some people may think Im smokin somthin but the costco kirkland marine batteries are great. And there return policy is really good. I have heard rumors that if you cant get a charge when out, some people have taken there batteries back for fresh ones. But I dont know anything about that.

[mark poulson]

I thought it was in series when you got 12 volts from two 12 volt batteries. Sorry if I was wrong. First time ever.

[Guest]

Hey Steve - my first boat was an 1986 woodscraft made by Forest L Woods wayyyyy back. It was fiberglass and really a cool boat for a beginner.. I picked it up for $1600 back then! I think if you look hard enough you will be able to find a cool old fiberglass boat for the price of a nice aluminum..

Even if the motor is that great you can still use the trolling motor to get around and fish in local areas... kinda like an expensive float tube... but, you get to fish from the deck etc...

[Tobe]

Steve,

You might want to pm FishCris.

I'll bet he could hook you up!

[Paul W]

I had a 14 foot boat I fished out of for several years, it had a bow mounted 12 volt 36lb thrust bow mounted minnkota on it. It worked great, and was usually plenty strong for a full day of fishing unless I was running it hard in excessive wind/current. I dont see why youd need anything stronger than something like a 36 or 42, unless maybe its your sole means of propulsion?

Paul W

[SloppySeconds]

As a UCD grad and fishing addict, I was in this same situation. I used to run a 17' jon boat with a 20hp tiller and ran all over the Delta with that rig. I was running a 12/24 Motorguide I got used (thanks to WB classifieds no less!) with 65# thust - when it was on 24V. I always ran it on 1 battery (27 series) since I didn't like the extra weight of the second one, but that was because I had a small outboard. Besides, the 12V/one battery system lasted 2 days and had plenty of power.

If I was to do it again, I would still get a used 12/24 trolling motor and start by running on12V with one battery and one starting battery. If it works well, just stick with it. If not, add a second battery and go 24V if you need more power. If you have the money for a new trolling motor, go that route.

A friend of mine used to run a 15' Klamath Advantage with an electric start 25hp tiller. He was able to get by easily with a 12V motor. I suspect you could easily get by with one of those Minn Kota 55# 12V motors and have plenty of battery. For those smaller horsepower boats, I'm not sure you'll benefit from the 24V system with the increased battery weight.... but you could experiment to see. Your starting battery - even a 24 series - should be plenty to run the motor and fish finder. I suspect you aren't running any livewells or other big electronics?

Most small aluminum boats setup for bass fishing do fine on 12V trolling motors.
Have fun.

[brambo0311]

Hey mark series is running pos on one battery to neg on the other. Then the pos and negative that are left give you 24 volts. This is one thing you dont wont to mess up. I have welded spring packs and drive lines on the rubicon this way multiple times. I could just picture a 24 volt arc on the water broiling the fish in the live well, aluminum conducts and is more critical on a metal boat than a glass one. Parallel is pos to pos neg to neg and gives you 12 volts twice the amps. Just follow the diagrams on the wireing of the motor, it will figure it all out for you.